New Student

Part 7 Flips

I sit in the back between Awsten and Otto in Geoff's honda. My thigh burns where Awsten's leg is up against mine, just like that night in the pond. Towels and a couple outfits of Awsten's are in the trunk. We drive down the road only for a couple of minutes, not enough time for a whole song to play on the radio. We pull into the public pools parking lot. "Um guys the place is closed, it's too late."

"Not for us." Awsten hops out of the car and we follow him to the front doors. He knocks on the glass and a man sitting behind the desk looks up and smirks.

"Hello boys." The older man who must be the security guard opens the door. "Just finished practice?"

"Yes sir mind if we go for a swim?" Awsten flashes a big smile at him.

"Fine as long as you keep getting the merch for me."

"Can do." Awsten pats him on the shoulder and walks out the back door to the pools.

"He's a fan?" I whisper to Awsten.

"Nope we've known him since we were kids but his daughter is so we hook him up with merch and he lets us swim whenever we want." Awsten shrugs.

"How have I not run into you guys before?"

"You probably just weren't paying attention." He laughs as the overhead lights come on lighting up the pool in front of us. Bugs immediately swarm the lights throwing black shadows on the waters surface. Otto and Geoff are already out of their shirts. Awsten was taking his off when I asked, "um what are we supposed to wear?"

"You got another tank top on?" Funny he remembered that.

"Actually I don't for once."

"That's why I grabbed my clothes so you and Bri can put them on after."

I laugh and take off my shoes and socks. We place them under the table. Awsten and I get splashed as the other three jump in. Awsten grabs my hand and before I can protest he jumps into the pool with me in tow. I come up for air and laugh when I catch my breath. "I thought I was going to face plant into the diving board." I point to the plastic sticking out over the water behind us.

"Nah I had you." Awsten tells me and I feel my cheeks burn.

"Dude do you remember when we had flipping competitions off that board?" Otto asks.

"Oh yeah I totally won." Awsten laughs.

"No way I did!" Geoff protests.

"Alright let's settle it then. Daphne and I will be judges." Bri pushes Geoff towards the board.

Awsten and Geoff climb out of the pool and line up behind the board. Geoff goes first. He runs out and does a long flip he lands almost seven feet away from the board. Awsten went next his flip was really high in the air and he dove into the water at the end. Otto went last and his ended with a huge splash. Bri huddles next to me, "Otto definitely had the best splash." I nod. "It's settled then."

"Otto is the winner!" I announce when Bri and I come out of our huddle. Awsten and Geoff protest, "nope decision is final." I laugh as Otto celebrates and splashes Awsten and Geoff. That's when the battle began. Awsten splashed me and I splashed Bri. We were all splashing each other. We stopped when Otto called time out.

"Break I got water in my eyes." We laughed but stopped. "Remember when that one really mean lifeguard was on duty?"

"The preppy blond dude?" Geoff asks him.

"Yep."

"Oh yeah we pulled his pants down." Awsten announces proudly.

"Awsten why would you do that?" I scold.

"He was being an asshole to this girl and I'd seen him do it before so we thought it was payback time."

"What was he doing?" I asked nervously twirling a strand of wet hair around my finger. This sounds familiar.

"He kept hitting on her and she was clearly uncomfortable. We were like freshman or something so we pulled his pants down to embarrass him. I think he quit after that."

"Daphne wasn't that you?" Bri asks me.

Awsten looks at me, "wait really?"

"Yeah his name was Josh. I had a boyfriend at the time so I really wasn't interested but he wouldn't give up. Everytime I went to the pool he bugged me. I didn't have my hair dyed yet probably why you didn't realize it was me."

"Well now I definitely don't regret doing it." Awsten smirks at me, "even though I got banned from the pool for a month. What a wasted summer."

"Well thanks." I blush.

"Anytime." We laugh and continue swimming for a while.